Deconstruction

The march of monster homes across your favorite Western landscapes got you down? Take heart: At the end of July, the Friends of the Columbia Gorge finished dismantling and recycling "nail by nail, shingle by shingle‚" a 5,500-square-foot house overlooking the Columbia River from Cape Horn on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. The nonprofit bought the house -- the only one built in a 16-lot subdivision platted before the creation of the scenic area in the 1980s -- for $1.5 million in 2006. The deconstruction is one of the last steps in a 25-year effort to transfer those lots and more than 50 others on Cape Horn to the Forest Service, which now holds 1,000 acres surrounding the homesite.